Only Tories Allowed

Reflecting on the anti-Corbyn media maelstrom of the last few weeks, I think we’ve reached a stage where the only party allowed to win general elections is the Conservative Party.

Now, obviously, when I say ‘allowed’, I don’t mean that I think the assembled lizards of the Illuminati High Council decide which government we get. It’s not quite that rigged. And as Corbyn’s victory has shown, the establishment isn’t as all-powerful as it and we often think.

But I reckon the only political force the corporate-financial elite won’t do everything in its power to squash are the Tories. Because the Tories are the corporate-financial elite. Cameron, Osborne and friends are just its parliamentary wing, in the same way that the colossally influential, criminally impartial news media is its public mouthpiece.

The only time Labour has got into power in the neoliberal era was when a) the Conservatives were a disaster zone, and b) Labour had embraced the Thatcherite settlement so enthusiastically they were right of John Major on some issues (which won them endorsements from multimillionaires and media moguls, who they now posed no threat to whatsoever).

It’s actually why I think Corbyn has got a better chance than Ed Miliband’s timid piggy-in-the-middle-ism, or the diet Thatcherism of the Kendall-Coopers

At the moment, the Tories are in power, and delivering radical social transformation in favour of the richest. Until Labour proves it can do that more effectively than the Cameron-Osbornes, the establishment will do everything it can to crush its chances of being elected. And the Tories are always likely to be better at immiserating millions to benefit the richest 10% or so – because even Liz Kendall would have to contend with a Labour Party membership completely opposed to that sort of thing.

Corbyn is so far the other way that it’s still slightly stunning he’s now Labour leader. What he can do that Miliband, Kendall, Cooper or Burnham can’t is energise millions of people and create enough of a mass movement on the ground to take the elite on.

Whether it’s Corbyn-led, or in some other configuration in the future, I think mass politics is the only way to get any sort of non-Tory majority government in Britain, let alone a left-wing one.